Charles Barkley open about his love affair with Toronto: Mudhar

But despite his genuine and clearly professed love for our town, it’s never been delved into why he always big-ups the city whenever he gets the chance. So with NBA all-star weekend upon us, we asked him

Over the years it has happened with such frequency it’s as if Sir Charles is on retainer with Toronto Tourism; if he isn’t, he probably should be.

With the NBA all-star game upon us, Barkley’s love for Toronto has been almost non-stop, as he’s talked about visiting Mississauga, wanting to hang out with Rob Ford, and Barkley’s good buddy Rod Black.

Barkley is a personality who always says what he means, but despite his genuine and clearly professed love for our town, it’s never been delved into why he always big-ups the city whenever he gets the chance.

I had to undertake a Star investigation and ask him what the deal is.

“Well, I played in a charity golf tournament in Toronto probably over 20 years ago, and I met a guy named Chris Bundy, who lived out in Mississauga,” Barkley said from TNT studios in Atlanta on Tuesday night. “He caddied for me, and we became really, really good friends. So I would come to Toronto every summer for a week or two and just hang out with him. Unfortunately, he passed away in a car wreck a few years ago, but we hung out for like 10 years every summer for a couple of weeks.

“I got to know Rod Black, who’s a good friend of mine now. I know Chris Simpson really well, I know Mark and Paul Jones. So man, I just love the city. I’ve been saying it for years. I call it a clean New York, and I’ve already gotten a couple calls from TNT people who have been up there this week and they’ve said ‘This is an amazing city’ and I’m like ‘I told you. You guys are going to love it.’ ”

And Barkley also sounds genuinely pleased to talk up the Raptors, particularly now that they are a very good team. I looked up his first visit as a player when, after a 1997 loss when he was with the Houston Rockets, he told the Toronto Sun: “We should beat a bad team. Give them credit: they played well tonight, but they’re still a bad team.”

Things have changed dramatically, although his analyst side knows exactly what he’d like to see from the currently red-hot Raptors.

“Well, obviously they’ve got to beat the Cavaliers. I think the main thing — they’ve got to get some low post scoring,” he says. “In my opinion, they’ve got the second-best backcourt in the NBA, and they’ve just got to get some consistency from (Jonas) Valanciunas and those guys down low, because the guards are going to play well.”

Another side of Toronto’s ascendance is that Barkley finally got JV’s name right — and there is a hilarious video showing how he mangled this city’s favourite Lithuanian’s moniker — although the Chuckster says he could always get it right, he just needed the right motivation.

“Oh, I always had his name right. It’s the same thing I did with Kawhi Leonard. I love messing with guys with funny names. It’s so funny — one of the (former) coaches in Toronto is a good friend of mine, Bill Bayno, and he put me on the phone with Valanciunas one day and he (said) I want you to pronounce my name right,” Barkley recalled. “I told him, ‘I know your name is Valanciunas, but you’re not getting enough rebounds for me to call you by the right name.’ That was the playoffs last year, I said if you get me 17 and 12, I’ll pronounce your name right on television. He got it right, and so did I.”

I warned Barkley that despite a mild winter, he and the NBA’s best and brightest are arriving in Toronto on the coldest weekend of the winter thus far.

“Dude, it’s cold everywhere, it’s freezing here in Atlanta,” he said. “We know it’s going to be cold. That’s why I only come up there in the summer. Let me tell you something, it can’t be colder than it was in New York last year. We were stuck in the hotel every day. So I’m expecting it and I’m bringing plenty of warm stuff but there’s nothing that can ruin all-star weekend. The NBA does a fantastic job of celebrating the game, the heritage, the entire weekend, so no matter how cold it is it’s going to be a great weekend.”

Unfortunately, Barkley doesn’t expect he’ll get a chance to hit his favourite hot spots in Mississauga, as he’ll be busy working and taping with his compatriots on what has been called the best panel in sports.

“We work the whole time,” he said.

“We’re on every night for like four or five hours. It’s not a lot of free time on all-star weekend, it’s not the most fun weekend for us. But you guys have your entire backcourt in the game . . . that’s going to be pretty cool.”